Session 2

Now if memory serves, we departed from that strange circular room n' ventured off in a direction that I'll just be referrin' to as East, even though I can't make heads nor tails o' this underground chamber o' spooks. That reconnected us with them stairs we found earlier, we know this cause our golden scaley friend, Ipmerk, he writes himself a good n' detailed map.

Just set off from the hallway was this octagonal room with a suit o' armor in it. There was some chains wrapped around that armor and at the end of them chains was an old skeletal body. We tried agitating the body, but just a body it was. Ipmerk skulked into the room, I say skulked cause he's got a way about his movements, he skulks into the room and this curious feller just goes ahead and prods the armor. Well, call me a sand gnoll's uncle cuz' hunnerds of roaches started pouring out. An' you know what? My fool companions charged into the room to make combat with the lil' bastards. I was trying to light the little critters on fire with some of my desert rose cocktails, but there were just too many o' them. I'm actually a bit irritated with m'self cause I was hollering to them to get'n the hell outta there, and stopped paying attention to what I was doing. I fumbled my bomb vial and it landed at m'feet, splashing me wit a bit o' fire. Finally, urryone managed ta leave the room, and so we ran.

After we regrouped, we headed down the hallway and found a very strange room that had all sorts o' glyphs and magical writins on the wall that not even dark-skinned Seertha managed to reco'nize. In 'dittion, the whole room was lit up by magical fires. I warned 'em that I didn't want nothin' to do with the room and so I stayed outside. Sure 'nuf, one o them glyphs came right off the wall and blasted our fightin' types with fire. They smashed it up purty easily, and then they wanted to leave. I told 'em if they had the spirit to set off the trap, they might as well make off with the goods as well.

Headin' back 'West' across the 'Southern' part of the map, we came across a pair o' doors with somethin' that piqued my curiosity right up. Behind one door was this glass chamber, pretty small, and Zuzmo went in briefly and got a tingly feelin' in his body that he liked. I had to know what happened, and I felt a strange vibratin' in the cockels o' my heartcage and suddenly I was in another room! Turns out, that room was the twin of the doors we had seen outside. Everything was normal, 'cept the scar on the right side o' my face was on the left side. When I went in one of the rooms again, it went back to the right side! I tried several different combinations of entering n' exiting but they always seemed to be doin' the same sorta thing. We speculated maybe it had somethin' to do with them black and white statues, but it wasn't quite clear to me.

Backtrackin' a little, we headed down one path that lead into a room with a very large domed ceiling and a very deep pit o' some sort. We tied some rope 'round Ipmerk and set him to explorin' for traps. None o' us thought to look in the pit, but there was some sorta very narrow ledge there with a bone snake that slithered up to try and eat Ipmerk! It swayed back n' forth a bit like a cobra, and Ipmerk got all cross-eyed, so I gave his rope a tug, pullin' him into that pit. He slammed into the wall on the side closest to us, but better than being fake snake food. Our Tin Hero charged forth to hold off the critter, which was provin' irritatin'inly resilient to our attacks. I got a bit angry so I grabbed it by the tail and tore at it with mah tusks. Turns out, I was angrier n' I 'spected cause I raised my axe up and chopped his tail off. Just a few more chops and we finished it off and shoved the beast inta the pit. Ipmerk finally snapped too and showed us a secret compartment he found round the pit. Inside was a smaller snake construct, which our Fiery Rooster paladin grasped up after some difficulty and flung into the pit.

The secret compartment was unexpected. Inside there was a coffin o' sorts but with a glass casin'. The fella inside was well preserved and Seertha detected that there was a magical necromantic necklace on him and some basic magical bracers. Now, I ain't one to take from the dead, which stirred some grumblin's among some of the members o' the group, but our paladin agreed with me n' that was that.

Continuin' down the hallway we heard and saw some critters ahead that were partially wolfen, and partially dead, I couldn't quite tell. I figured right'n bout now was the time to quaff my Anger Juice, secret mixture of Cobra blood n' a few other things. I grew in size and ferocity like I always do, and the anger took over. I was a bit thrown off at first, because I didn't even manage to hit one o' the critters before the rest of our crew sliced them up to pieces, in large part thanks to the strange man I know next ta nothin' 'bout, Mr. Clount. In the room was some sort o' strange moss covered statue, but in my state I insisted we pushin' on. Lil Zuzmo was none too happy about missing the chance ta play with the moss, but I made a promise that we'd head back when we got the chance.

Runnin' down the hallway, there was a cluster o' skeletons. They got a few shots off on us, but we tore them to pieces with relative ease. We had almost looped all the way back to the beginnin' 'corrding to Ipmerk's map and burst into a room covered with dark curtains. The purpose o' da room eluded me, but there was a strange door beyond with a disk shape in it. Back in the trapped glyph room we had found a disk with a glyph, and inserted inta the door which turned into some sort o' fleshy thing and opened up to reveal... a normal room beyond. I was achin' ta' smash somethin', so I stalked back where'n' we came from after realizing the other side o' the normal room was the same kind' o stone door we found at the entrance - a full outside loop.

No one followed me, so I stalked down back to the hall where the strange teleportin' rooms were and continued down that hall. At the end was a chapel o' sorts and some sorta flying head with bat wings for ears and uh, well, also for wings. It smashed into me ev'n though I had drank my magical shield potion, so lunged at it. I bit off the front part o' it's face with mah tusks, stepped back, and finished it off with a furious blow from mah' axe. Less than a minute later, I shrunk back n' my regular size, and proceeded to expel all that black poison I had just ingested in the most violent and gut-wrenchin' kind o' way.

As I hustled back to meet the group, I heard some sorta commotion in a direction we hadn't gone. Turns out they had found some sort o' secret door, but where I had heard the fightin' from was up a rickety ladder. At the top, I was surprised to see most o' my group was unconscious, with brave little Zuzmo tryin' to stuff their wounds with moss! Only Zuzmo and Ipmerk seemed ta be alive n' kicking. Zuzmo impaled a zombie with'n his spear, and his tasty frog feller charged forward to attack the zombie's master, who turned out ta be 'nother alchemist o sorts! I charged up behind him, seemed like he was a better alchemist n' I was, but he definitely wasn't a better scrapper. Tourniquet, the frog, and I were choppin' him to pieces, but turns out he had some sort o' magical spear and got me a good un'. Before I passed out a took another swing at him.

Next thing I knew, Zuzmo was standin' over me with Ipmerk lookin' on. They'd just stuffed the last healin' potion we had down my throat. Then I looked around, this strange alchemist feller had himself a full on alchemical laboratory! In the corner there were two tanks o' some sort, one had a body within, but the other tank was smashed open and preservative liquid was layin' all over the floor. We 'speculatin' this feller is the one who stole all the bodies, but I ain't fer sure yet. I set about makin' potions, I'm sure paintin' a funny picture for my short comrades as I donned mah craftin' glasses, which look a bit small on mah face. Errything looks small on my face with these big tusks o' mine. Not complainin' or nothin', juss notin'. I made some potions and woke a few of our fellers up, but a few were pretty near death.

Problem was, we had more ta explore. I want ta hear some more answers bout this alchemist feller, bout the flesh door, n' 'bout that strange sarcophagus we found. We reasoned if'n we left they might not let us back down so we settled on the unsettlin' decision ta stay in this blasted temple tomb. We found one o' them rooms from the beginnin' with all the drawin's of angels and that comfortin' feelin', which made me feel a lil bit better bout things. After we set up, I left to collect some o' them black curtains from tha room with the flesh door, turns out there was another door behind one o' da curtains. Hopin' not to disturb nothin' as I wasn't fixin' for more hurtin', I snuck away. Then I layed all them curtains underneath that armor where them roaches lived, poured some o' my special grease on em' n' I lit the lil' bastards on fire. Bunch o' them musta left already, but there was enough left for Cajun Roaches for Zuzmo, Tourniquet, n' mahself. The others declined the delicacy, and just had some o' their rations.

I ain't sleepin' tonight, cause you don't sleep in the crypt o' the dead, so I know I'm gon' be pretty tired tomorrow, but it just ain't a risk I'm willin' to take. So I'm takin' a break from brewin' to record what happened today (meta: Session 1 and Session 2). Hopefully some answers tomorrow. I'm thinkin' them clerics above know more n' they let on in the first place. We'll see. I'm hopin' we dun find too much more down here t'morrah, as it's pretty dangerous. This ain't the place I want to rest my head forever.